Nation pays tributes to Indira Gandhi

​New Delhi:President Pranab Mukherjee, Vice President Hamid Ansari and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi paid tributes to ex-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on her 99th birth anniversary at her former residence at Safdarjung Road here.

A prayer meeting was held on the occasion. In a separate function held at AICC headquarters in the early morning, Sonia Gandhi, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh along with top party leaders paid rich floral tributes to Indira Gandhi.

A speech of Indira Gandhi was also played during the programme wherein she had spelt out the responsibilities towards maintaining unity and integrity of the nation as well as protecting the girl child. Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ahmed Patel, Motilal Bora, Anand Sharma, Randeep Surjewala and others attended the function.

Rahul Gandhi remembered the late leader and his grandmother as a warrior and revolutionary. "Remembering Indiraji: a warrior, a revolutionary, a woman of conviction, compassion & sacrifice. My grandmother, my friend, my ever guiding light," he said in a tweet.Prime Minister Narendra Modi also paid tributes to former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on her 99th birth anniversary.

Tributes to former Prime Minister Smt Indira Gandhi on her birth anniversary," he tweeted. Born on 19 November, 1917, Gandhi served as Prime Minister from 1966 to 1977 and then again from 1980 until her assassination in 1984.

Congress traditionally holds Indira Gandhi's birth anniversary function at Shakti Sthal, but the venue was shifted to AICC headquarters in view of closure of the memorial due to bird flu.

At another function in the Central hall of Parliament, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, former Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi paid floral tributes to Indira Gandhi on her birth anniversary.